#WorkIssues #UnpaidHours #EmployeeRights
Hey everyone! 👋 Have you ever had a similar experience to mine at work? I work at a kayak launch, and my managers make me clock out when there isn’t any work to be done. It can be frustrating and leave me with unpaid hours at the end of the day. 😕
I’m wondering, can I refuse to clock out when told to? My manager says he can’t pay me if I’m not working. Is this true? 🤔
Here are some possible solutions I’ve been considering:
– Discussing this issue with HR or a higher-level manager
– Researching my rights as an employee
– Exploring alternative work arrangements, such as flexible scheduling
What do you think? Have you been in a similar situation before? Let’s chat and share our thoughts! ✨
He can’t require you to be onsite and not pay you. Other than that, I don’t know of any US jurisdiction that bans irregular shifts.
Just hit up the department of labor and explain what the operating practice is at your place of employment. Chances are they’ll straighten out asap if you do this.
Making you clock out and stay on site for hours is BS. Kayak Launch doesn’t sound like business that makes a lot so they’ll penny pinch wherever possible is my guess. Where i used to live we had lots of rafting companies and they were very sleazy.
If this is in the US this is illegal.
They can make you clock out, but if you’re off the clock, they cannot keep you on-site. If they want to treat you as on-call, they have to pay you.
This doesn’t sound like a job
I wouldn’t clock out ‘for a thirty’ and stick around.
I also wouldn’t go back.
Just refuse until they fire you.
As soon as you clock out, ask the boss what time you should come back, and then leave. You are not required to be there when you are not on the clock.
Illegal
If you have to still be present then you’re still working/on call. Dol has a website just for this full of information
If they expect you to be there, you should expect them to pay you.
Call your state DoL to confirm because local law may impact, but most likely should be paid. The technical term is “engaged to wait”, i.e. if you are required to be there and just waiting on customers it’s payable.
People get paid to wait behind a counter for customers every day, but at the same time, staff are often cut early.
The thing here is, does he expect you to stay around?
If you are told to clock out, you should just leave the site, go home or wherever you want.
And if he can’t pay you for not working, just tell him, “Well, I can’t stay if I am not being paid.”
Yes, they can make you clock out.
Yes, (legally), they could make your schedule something like 12:07-12:13, 1:19-1:22, 2:33-3:06 or something stupid like that. We don’t have the protections that exists elsewhere for that.
However; if you’re off the clock, you’re off the clock. Availability is absolutely the sort of thing that you have to pay for. Not just physical labor. You can leave and if he doesn’t give you a specific time to be back *at which point you can expect to clock in*, then he can certainly call you and ask you to come back.
It sounds like your boss is considering you “on call”, but is not treating you the way you need to be for “on call”
I’m an airline pilot. That’s an industry that really benefits from unions. I sometimes sit for “airport reserve” which means I have to put on a uniform and go sit at the airport *in case* someone calls in sick. I am paid my normal hourly wage for that. Because that’s my job, that day. It’s not my fault that my employer doesn’t have something more exciting for me to do. My employer is paying me to be available so that customers don’t get their flights cancelled because of a sick pilot or because a pilot got stuck in some city somewhere and isn’t there to operate the flight.
I *also* have another type of reserve. This one I can sit at home and do whatever I wish. But I have to be at the airport within a certain amount of time (2 hours or 24 hours; depending on which type of reserve I’m scheduled). That’s unpaid. Though the airlines solve this (again, unions) by having a “minimum guarantee”. I have a certain number of hours per month I get paid even if I end up getting fewer than those hours scheduled.
In other words; it sounds like they want you to do the same thing as my “airport reserve”. Sit around and wait for someone to need you. That’s work. That’s paid.
If you don’t have any work in that time, you’re “engaged to wait” you’re getting paid because work could come in. This is time theft. Report your managers to your local authority for labor issues.
US Dept of Labor has a quick test to determin if you are in an on-call status with your employer:
[https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/hoursworked/screenER80.asp](https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/hoursworked/screenER80.asp)
You sound like an on-call, and he should NOT be requiring you to clock out. He should be paying you for your time there.
***FLSA Hours Worked Advisor***
***On-Call Time***
***An employee who is required to remain on his or her employer’s premises or so close thereto that he or she cannot use the time effectively for his or her own purposes is working while on-call.***
***Whether hours spent on-call is hours worked is a question of fact to be decided on a case-by-case basis. All on-call time is not hours worked.***
***On-call situations vary. Some employees are required to remain on the employer’s premises or at a location controlled by the employer. One example is a hospital employee who must stay at the hospital in an on-call room. While on-call, the employee is able to sleep, eat, watch television, read a book, etc. but is not allowed to leave the hospital. Other employees are able to leave their employer’s premises, but are required to stay within so many minutes or so many miles of the facility and be accessible by telephone or by pager. An example of this type of employee is an apartment maintenance worker who has to carry a pager while on call and must remain within a specified number of miles of the apartment complex.***
Sounds like wage theft, and he should be reported to the DOL.
There’s a lot of good advice here re: labor laws and your rights, but if you wanted a different solution….just make shit up to do. Invent tasks. Grab a broom or a hose or whatever to keep the launch “clean”. Spray the kayaks. Whatever.
Go home as soon as you clock out.
Ask if you can leave when you’re clocked out. When he says no, record the conversation somehow and give it the DOL. If you’re expected to remain on premises to be ready to work, then they’re required to pay you.
I have had this happen to me in Hungary. I no longer work for the company.
Don’t forget to file for unemployment since your hours are being reduced.
Don’t forget to file for unemployment since your hours are being reduced.
If I’m clocked out then I can leave right? They can’t make you stay if you are clocked out.
Look up Engaged to Wait versus Waiting to be Engaged.
Your boss is lying to you in order to avoid paying you. You have to decide whether to fight it or accept it.
If you decide to fight it, this sub can help you do so.
No they can not do this. If they make you clock out they can’t make you sit around and wait. They can have you leave but if they have you waiting around at work, you need to get paid for that time.
Location, location, location
Doesn’t sound legal unless you’re sent home. You can’t be required to be on site and force you off the clock. Check with DOL, chances are your employer owes back wages… You might be able to file for UI due to hours being ‘reduced’ as well depending on how bad it is.
This is super illegal. Most states have a minimum amount of hours they have to pay you once you clock in.
thats like having a grocery clerk clock out when they dont have customers to ring up but they arent allowed to leave the store.
No they can’t. There have been a couple of class action lawsuits about things like this where the employer forced employees to be on a site, but did not pay them. If it is a requirement of the job to be on site waiting then they have to pay you. If you are clocked out you can leave and should leave.
being there and available is on the clock. what kind of moron do you work for?
If you’re required to be on-site, they’re required to pay you.
If they’re like, “You’re off the clock, you can leave and go wherever, we don’t need you today,” they don’t have to pay you.
Buuut… “You need to clock out, but *you have to stay here* and clock back in when it picks up again,” you’re on-call, and I’m *pretty sure* employment law says you need to be getting some kind of compensation for that, because they are still in control of your time.
If you are required to be there, they have to pay you for the time. Every minute of it, they aren’t paying you for the amount of time they use, but for the amount of time they require you to be present.
if they are requiring you to be there (ie schedule you to be there 9-5), you need to be clocked in and get paid because they have required you to be there.
if they randomly tell you to clock out and get lost for an hour because they’re not busy, it’s up to you if you can deal with that uncertainty and waste of your time